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Thursday, November 14, 2013

Thankful: Day $@#*M%*&

Today I am thankful for grace and forgiveness. As a parent, I have many opportunities to feel I fall short of what I "should be", but I am learning to forgive myself, pick myself up and do my best again every day.

The beauty of grace and forgiveness is that it has a power that is totally counterintuitive and yet so beautifully brilliant. I think that is why people struggle with faith in our Lord and struggle with acceptance of His grace. You cannot earn it, you are given it. The only thing standing between us and salvation is faith.

In order to accept the Lord's forgiveness, we have to be able to forgive ourselves. It is easy to condemn ourselves, and there is a time for that, it is not a step that can be skipped, but then we must forgive ourselves in order to accept grace. I am thankful that I am learning to forgive myself.

I am naturally very hard on myself. Some have called me a perfectionist. That doesn't mean I have a perfect house, on the contrary, I can't EVER have a perfect house BECAUSE I'm a perfectionist. However, I am learning to accept "good enough" and prioritizing some things and accepting I cannot do everything.

So I've missed a few "thankful" posts. I would have liked to stay on top of this, but I started again today and will try to continue. Forgiving myself for my shortfall allows me to continue on more good work that I would not have done if I could not forgive myself. So I am thankful for it and for the grace of God who supports me each day in my growth as a parent, wife, daughter and friend.

At the Pumpkin Patch. No makeup. Just family memories.

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